Worms

Treatment of Worms in Poultry

Chicken worms, chicken coccidia, and poultry mites and lice, are common and regularly seen. Round worms in chickens have a life cycle of about three weeks. Consequently from the time the egg is eaten by the bird, and the worm grows inside the chicken, and a new egg produced, is 21 days.

The source of the worms is usually contamination of the food with chicken faeces. So hygiene and feeding ALL food off the ground is recommend by chicken vets. After an appropriate chicken de-wormer, that kills all the adult worms in the birds intestine, no further eggs are passed for at least 21 days. For this reason in severe poultry worm infections, the chicken vet recommends de-worming every 21 days. This is to stop the shedding of eggs into the environment.

We recommend a product “Bird-wormer” that is registered for egg laying hens. There is no withholding period and the eggs can be eaten while on the medication. The poultry vets do not routinely recommend Moxidectin as it has uncertain withholding periods, and precious eggs need to be discarded. We do have moxidectin if needed as it is an effective product.

Chicken worms – the large single “capillaria” worm egg – from a hen with worms. from Chicken Vet Melbourne.